Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Two weekends ago, I accidentally lulu-ed and lost my wallet. Thought I'd joined the politikus and freelunch gang. I went back all the way to my office in Shah Alam twice to look for it, had people korek my car and search my room.

I guess if your table in the office looked like this, there is a real possibility that it may be buried.if anyone recognises this, hush!haha... anyone wanna try to psychoanalyse Lulu?

But alas, it was not to be found.Totally broken hearted, I went to the police station and lodged a police report.

When I went back to work on Monday, someone returned the wallet to me. I had really lulu-ed and left it in one of the meeting rooms.

I knew I had lulu-ed, and told myself that I have to go back to the police station to cancel the report. But like a budak kecil, I was very reluctant, cos bimbang kena marah.

sigh...

so, when I heard the news on the payrise for the public servants, I knew it was time to go to the police station and confess to my lulu-ness.After all, how could anyone who "menerima durian runtuh yang lebih istimewa iaitu kadar kenaikan gaji antara 9 hingga 42 peratus, iaitu 20 peratus lebih tinggi daripada peratus kenaikan gaji kakitangan awam lain" still be in a mood to tegur this Lulu for being so lulu?

True enough, when I went to the police station, everyone looked like they were in a good mood. I explained to them that i wanted to cancel or update my report as my wallet had been found. They asked me if all the contents were in tact, and indeed they were, so, there's no need to do anything. I was outta there in an instant. It spent more time looking for parking compared to telling my "sob" story.

Liew Chin Tong, in his article in the Singapore Straits Times dated 6th Feb noted that there was an accelerated increase of government servants post-Mahathir. Since 2000, there has been an additional 210,000 new posts.

If I'm doing my math correctly, that as 20.6% increase since 2000. Another way of putting it, for every 4 government servants there were in Y2000, there is an additional one today. Where they are, what they are doing, I don't know.

One would have thought that in the advent of computerisation and things going on-line, less people would need to be employed by the government. Why the need for so many staff? The answer would probably run along the same line as why the need for such a large cabinet.Lulu can only hope [and some may say dream] that the increase was in doctors and nurses, not administrators and beaurocrats.

Who knows, if they were able to reduce the size of civil service, maybe the government would be able to afford more generous pay every year, insted of just those years when an election date is marked on the calendar. But then again, that would mean less indebted-to-the-government government servants and an annual pay rise would mistakenly evolve as a hak instead of a keistimewaan.

2. Will the payhike bring them to an upgraded lifestyle, or is it just sufficient to cover the additional higher cost of living today?I suspect it's the latter. Everything's naik-ed harga.Last week, the government announced that flour naik harga.The papers have also noted that dairy based products, and lulu's favourite Milo also naik harga.Madmonk says that the price of commercial tin cooking oil went up from RM26 to RM40 something now, at last count.Petrol super naik harga last year, spiralling upward with it, all transportation related costs.

momentary sidetrack... come let's sing along...[to be sung in tune of "Oh my darling, Clementine"]Naik harganaik hargasemua barang naik hargano ending to the tune yet, cos it's too early in the morning for me to think of one, and I really don't think the spate of naik hargas has ended either.

The thing is, the cost of living has gone up. As many have pointed out in Lulu's previous post, when the government allows flour, which is a neccesity and a product which makes up the basket for our CPI, to go up before elections, we have much to fear post-election.

I hope the government servants will sit down, kirakan their household expenditure, balance their books before taking the "extra" cash to help Proton's sales.

:-P next government office stop IRB. I overdeclared one of my gifts for charity. Have to correct that as it was a 2005 donation, not 2006 donation. Hope they'll still be in a good mood.

fatt tatt - cantonese for prosper, become wealthy... along those lines-la

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Lulu,

From madmonk,U r right in your observations..during Dr M's time, total population of civil servants around 800,000 and since then ballooned to 1 million plus. Secondly, the increase acts like some sort of reimbursement (caused by unjust price increases) and not really "fatt tatt" for majority. Though the higher scale might be more comfortable (not due to increase) but likely "side-income". Thirdly, don't listen to political bullshit that it is not due to the coming GE. It is.

If you habitually give monkeys peanuts, you get monkey business. Give them a coconut, they go nuts! The zookeeper decided to give coconuts cos he then can sleep longer as he thought the monkeys will take longer time to crack the nut and there is more flesh-lah! Their appetite last longer till "Gorilla Eviction" (GE), sorry, I should mean general election.

I agree with your first observation. If there were fewer civil servants, doing their work more efficiently, they would definitely have the opportunity for better pay. On the price increases of milk products and flour, I think they are unavoidable. I'm not a believer in subsidies, they just perpetuate a "subsidy mentality". The world market prices for milk and wheat have gone up quite a lot recently, driven by high demand and the prolonged drought in Australia, which is a major world producer.

From Madmonk. I decided to gauge some reported feedbacks from a "mouthpiece" newspaper and there you are: Federation of malaysian Consumers Association adviser Prof Datuk Dr Hamdan Adnan said (quote): "The percentage of the salary increment COULD BE BETTER (bold letters, my own) as the current increment was only enough to maintain the current statndard of living. The current increment is not going to enhance the civil servants' standard of living because the prices of daily necessities have gone up." (unquote).

Also note the starting salary of civil servants under "Support personnel Category Two grade 1 to 16" is only RM480.85 !! (35% increment).

There is much rhetorics from the Domestic trade and Consumer Affairs, including claiming daily monitoring by its enforcement officers on so-called unscrupulous traders. When flour prices went up, a bowl of noodles (i.e. mee) in most areas in the Klang valley shot up from or between 20 to 30 cents per bowl. Breakfast per person (including hot drink) in urban areas cost about RM4 to RM5 ringgit which previously cost that much for lunch.

In 2005, even the price of taugeh bean sprouts) the cheapest vegtable (so to speak) went up to 80 sen from 70 sen. Now, has gone up again. Reason: a gunny sack of beans previously cost RM75 has gone up RM135 in 2005. Now: No idea.

What about other animals in the farm? Well, the last round of increase for crocodiles was in 2005. Well, the zookeeper's salary increased from RM20,751.50 to RM22,826.65.

(For Lulu's information) What?? Oh...Beehun? Increased from RM6,534 to RM7,187.40 (excluding perks and allowances to be claimed) of course. Should exceed RM10,000 or more.

There you are...eat to survive for majority and live to eat for the privileged few.

The zookeeper's salary has increased from RM20,751.50 to RM22,826.65. Well, at least now he can afford to purchase more mansions in Perth and go on holidays more often. That is, if he uses his own money and not the taxpayers'.

Right, My past observation suggests that the purchasing power won't be that (apparently)enhanced for long. In this instance there is no arrears(it appears), so it's even more likely that within less than a year or so, they'll be back to square one.